Yesterday we rode one of Melbourne’s two free tourist transports. This morning started out with the second; the City Circle Tram which, as the name implies, runs a loop around the CBD. It worked out great for us since the Avis location was on the opposite corner of the CBD from our hotel. Although it was a bit crowded we managed to get to Avis without a problem. Not surprisingly, their downtown location was small, but surprisingly Saturday is their busiest day so while they had our reservation, we had to wait 45 or 50 minutes while a load of cars were delivered from the airport. For our “inconvience” they upgraded us from the Corolla we had reserved to the Aussie version of the V6 Camry, tricked out with all the toys. It has turned out ... read more

We had several items planned for Day 3 in Sydney, but the evening before Pat came down with some GI problem, so a good portion of the day passed in the hotel room. By mid afternoon he was feeling a bit better, so we ventured out to the Victoria Building, the former central Post Office building converted into a high end shopping area and then to the Australian National Maritime Museum. We walked around the Victoria Building but managed to keep our credit cards in our pocket. There is a monorail loop running around the area south of Darling Harbor so we took that over to the Maritime Museum. The biggest attraction there was the postwar destroyer, HMAS Vampire, the last of three Daring class destroyers built in the late 40s and early 50s. In fact ... read more

Before the plane left for Sydney, we had a couple more things to do in Christchurch. First, we visited the Antarctic Center. Many of the expeditions to the Antarctic leave out of Christchurch, so the Center talks about the exploration of the continent and the conditions people face while they are there. They also had a penguin display including a glass walled tank. They had a couple dozen “little blue” penguins which are the smallest species, about a foot tall. But they waddle along the ground like the emperor penguins you see in the movies. However, underwater is really their environment. They basically fly underwater and are very quick and graceful. The center was a bit expensive, but well worth the cost. After that, we went to the terminal and after going through customs, got to ... read more

After breakfast we loaded the car up again and got back on Rt. 6 heading north toward the glacier country. Another couple at the Lodge, Nan and Art from Spokane, told us about Lake Matheson near the town of Fox Glacier. They said there was a real pretty walk around the lake which was easily accessed from the main road. Since we had all day and not a lot of distance to cover we decided to check it out. The car park and trail head was right where we’d been told, so off we went. Our first surprise was when we crossed the river which flowed out of the lake. Up till now all the rivers we’d seen had been crystal clear, but this one while clear had a very marked brown color. We later asked ... read more

We got up first thing Tuesday morning for a walk down to the Queenstown CBD to pick up the car. We had previously scouted out the Avis location and found a bakery for breakfast around the corner. While it wasn’t as good as Fergburger is sufficed to get us going. We picked up the car, a pretty new Camry and set off on the left side of the road. The first excitement, right outside the Avis lot, the town was doing something major to the street so a bit of a construction detour, but we got through that and came to our first round-a-bout (or rotary or traffic circle), as the signs say we “give way” to the cars on our right and turn into the circle to the left. By this point (about 50m from ... read more